Video shows moment woman picks up rattlesnake, not dog toy

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CALABASAS, Calif. -- A Southern California woman was literally rattled when she picked up what she thought was a dog toy – only to find out it was a venomous snake.

Carla Portocarerro Rosso and her husband Ariel had just finished soaking in the jacuzzi at their Calabasas home when the terrifying encounter was captured on surveillance video.

Carla, dressed in a robe and flip-flops, was on her way inside when her husband asked her to bring the dog.

"She wouldn’t come, so I said ‘Oh, there’s a toy over there’ and I went to grab it,” she told KTLA. "I grabbed it and I felt something gushy, and I said ‘Oh my God!’"

Screaming loud enough to send the dog tearing back the way it came, Carla dropped the snake and ran away, her knees pumping high in the air – "I thought for some reason that it was all over me,” she remembered. Carla and her husband then called the fire department to take care of it.